I plucked a large sheet off of a crane and showed it to Terry Jackson, formerly the sergeant that headed up Alana’s second fireteam. I knew what the verdict was before he spoke, though. This last round was at fifty meters of distance and I was fairly sure the hits I’d landed had been sheer luck.
“Well, I think it’s safe to say you have absolutely no talent,” Terry chuckled. “Your trigger discipline is impressive, though. When I had you try burst firing without changing the selector, every burst was exactly three rounds. Experience is the best teacher, and you’ve certainly got plenty of that by now. Don’t worry, though; I’ll turn you into a competent rifleman in a matter of weeks.”
“That quick?” I asked, surprised. “I thought I’d need, like, months or something.”
“How long do you think boot camp is? Ten weeks, and recruits are only practicing shooting for six or so of them. If I can’t teach you to shoot in a month and a half I’ll eat my hat,” he said, dropping the target sheet onto a pile. “I’ll need to put together an individualized plan for you, though. Can’t imagine you have much use for half the shit we teach fresh meat.”
“I certainly wouldn’t mind getting out of the physical training. I’m planning on buying some genetic upgrades tonight, so I don’t think it’ll be necessary,” I replied. I’d put it off while I was out of town, but it time I finally got around to finishing my mods. I still needed to enhance my skin, muscle, bones, and nerves, so I’d just get them all taken care of together.
“Actually, the muscular enhancements will only enhance existing musculature. Getting the most out of them will still require building additional muscle mass through training!” Juny corrected me, netting a hearty guffaw from Terry.
“…okay, so maybe I can’t avoid the physical training. Well, I should still only need the weight training, right? Since my new lungs improved my stamina already,” I said hopefully; thankfully, Juny bobbed up and down in an imitation of a nod.
“Correct! You may also require an adjustment period for your nerves, but that should not require physical training or therapy,” she said, much to my relief.
“In that case, I’ll get to work throwing together a plan that’s limited to just muscle training and shooting practice. We’ll be using standard issue weapons on the range. Samurai weapons might damage the facility and they sometimes have modifications that won’t be universal to every weapon you handle,” Terry told me, signaling the end of today’s practice. It had really just been intended to gauge my starting place, so we’d just tried a few a single round for each of several firing modes at various ranges.
“Thanks, man. I’m sure you have better things to do than one-on-one training,” I said with an appreciative smile.
“Hey, it’s not every day you get to train an actual Samurai. How could I miss that? But you’re right, I do have other things I need to get done, so we’ll be calling it a day for now. Meet me in the gym tomorrow at o-eight-hundred and we’ll get started for real,” he replied, offering me a handshake before leaving the range. I turned my borrowed rifle in to the range master and headed out myself.
After checking in on my mom, who’d moved on to unpacking her things in her new room, I headed back to my own which was now packed full of boxes. It wasn’t the same room I’d stayed in previously. With the Stalking Tigers having left the building to Alana, the suites previously used by the higher ranking officers were left open and I’d claimed one for myself.
Getting the equipment for maintaining my armor up to it had, reportedly, not been easy. Fortunately for me, that had been taken care of while I was gone.
I settled onto the couch and propped my feet up, then called out to Juny. “Alright, it’s finally time. Let’s…start with the skin and work our way down, I guess?”
“Of course! For skin, I assume you would like to prioritize defense?” she asked.
“Right. It’d be nice to…well, bleed less, I guess.”
“Within the Class I Biosculpting catalog you already possess, the best option is like the Nemean Hide skin replacement. It would gradually replace your skin with an enhanced version that resists injury, heals faster, and bleeds less. The extra protection is minimal at Class I, however!” Juny explained, to which I shrugged.
“If it’s the best we’ve got then it’s the best we’ve got. I know I have a lot of points right now-” somewhere in the neighborhood of 80,000 after the calamity I’d caused- “but with all the other stuff on my shopping list right now I’d rather not go overboard on something that only helps if my armor fails.”
Granted, it would help if I was ever caught without my armor as well, but I could always buy something on the spot if it came down to it.
“Next would be muscles, then! For this, I believe you should purchase the Megingjorth Enhancement. This would result in tissue that produces less lactic acid, is more difficult to tear, and is denser. It will also strengthen your tendons to compensate for the increased strength. You should, after training, be on par with the strongest natural-born human while possessing a much more compact musculature!” Juny continued. I didn’t see anything to object to there, so I just agreed.
“Sounds good. Nerves?” I asked next.
“For this, I have selected the Cat(?) Reflexes Nervous System. It would systematically replace your nerves with new fibers that conduct signals more efficiently. Your reaction times should be an average of fifty milliseconds faster!” That one seemed oddly short. She’d also flashed the name on my augs as if to make sure I saw that (?), which I was assuming was a reference to something.
“That’s it? Also, what’s with the name?” The way she described it, I’d only be getting one improvement out of it.
“It would also cause your nerves to regenerate. However, I do not believe this is worth mentioning, as you are unlikely to notice nerve damage before it is repaired by your existing Phoenix organ anyway. As for the name…don’t worry about!” Juny answered. I was beginning to suspect she’d been developing a pop-culture affliction of a different nature than mine, but I decided to let it slide since the name of my nerve upgrade didn’t really matter anyway.
“If it makes you happy, sure, why not? That just leaves the bones.”
“For bones, you have several options. The most sturdy upgrade would entail a complete replacement of all osseous tissue with a new material that incorporates more metal. This would significantly improve the ability of your bones to resist damage, but slow healing and drastically increase your mass. It would also take longer and make subsequent upgrades take longer as well,” Juny began. That one didn’t sound worth the drawbacks.
“I’m hoping the other options are more attractive,” I said wryly, knowing she’d likely started with the worst option.
“I believe so! You could also have your bones entirely encased in a thin metal sheath. While this would not result in the same degree of strength, it would keep bone matter in place when they are broken, allowing for more rapid healing. This option is the next heaviest, however, and gaps would be necessary at muscle insertion points,” Juny went on.
“And I’m guessing option number three is the best one,” I replied. Juny bobbed up and down.
“That depends on your criteria, but I believe so! The final option would involve lacing the outer surface of your bones with an advanced alloy lattice, similar to that used in the fictional Spartan II program. Your bones would not be as difficult to break as in fiction, but the lattice has a minimal footprint and can be extended to create a final layer of protection between your ribs and around your abdominal cavity,” Juny finished, unabashedly throwing in that reference to influence my judgement. Which wasn’t necessary; I could spot the thread myself, and I liked that final detail.
“I’ll take it. Maybe make the protection thicker around my skull if possible. Anything I’m forgetting?”
“You have not yet enhanced your vision or hearing. Would you like to consider options for those as well?” Juny proposed excitedly. “I believe you also wished to complete your existing modifications!”
“Complete my…? Oh!” I exclaimed, slapping myself in the forehead. I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten that. After so long in survival mode it had somehow slipped my mind that I had access to technology for transitioning that was practically magic. “Yeah, I’ve gotten pretty much the best mods money can buy using my father’s life insurance money, but finishing the job would be…pretty great.”
“Fortunately, that is relatively easy! A simple retroviral package can correct the chromosomal issue and your existing nanite reservoir can assemble any missing organs at the cost of a temporary reduction in regenerative efficiency,” Juny told me. Obviously that downside was nothing, so I decided to take it and move on.
“Sharper vision and the ability to see in the dark is probably enough for my eyes. Can my hearing be improved without making me painfully sensitive to loud noises, though?” I had to admit to a certain temptation to ask for eyes with extended color vision like mantis shrimp have, but on the other hand, that would probably be pretty disorienting and make it impossible for me to describe colors to other people.
“For the first, the Eye of Horus gene enhancement should be sufficient. Unfortunately, the latter is impossible at the current Class level without using cybernetics. The modifications needed to improve your hearing increase sensitivity as a consequence,” Juny explained. I shrugged. My hearing wasn’t on the top of the list for improvement anyway, and my armor was capable of the things the cybernetics she’d mentioned probably would have handled.
“Just the eyes then. Anyway, you used words like ‘gradually’ a lot, so does that mean most of these can’t be done immediately?” I asked, putting the other matter aside.
“It would drastically increase the cost, as it would involve stripping away the majority of your body mass, leaving only bones and internal organs, and then converting or replacing that mass to produce an entirely new body on the spot!” she responded in a terrifyingly enthusiastic tone. I couldn’t suppress a bit of a shiver.
“Yeah, uh, let’s…not do that,” I told her.
“As some of your purchases will require an external source of raw materials to install, I believe a more efficient option would be to merge all upgrades into a single package with multiple specialized nanite reservoirs, but you will need to wear a backpack directly against your skin for the two-week duration of the upgrade period,” Juny explained.
“Good thing I don’t sleep on my back…” I grumbled before giving a thumbs up. “Let’s just get on with it. Gimme.” An instant later there was a literal treasure chest on my coffee table. I gave Juny a bit of side-eye as I opened it, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t planning to keep it as a decoration. Following the instructions on the backpack, which resembled one of those water bladders with a hose to drink out of, I took off my shirt and bra, then slung it over my shoulders.
There was a bit of a sting in several places as the pack punctured my skin, but it was hardly even noticeable compared to having a Model Five shoot me in the arm.
“So…that’s it?” I asked, carefully putting my shirt back on.
“That’s it! You just need to be careful not to tear the pack off or sustain any injuries for the duration of the upgrade period!” I was certainly aware of that last one; it was the entire reason I’d put this off for so long. I was prepared to not leave the base for the next couple of weeks, though, so the only other thing to do was make sure not to drop any weights on my foot or anything dumb like that.
“I know, I know,” I assured her before my brain slid to a halt. Not due to any kind of realization; I just ran out of things to think about. For the first time in a while I had nothing to do. After a few moments my eyes slid over to the piles of boxes around the room. “Hm. I wonder which one has my computer in it?”
I would assume that the consequences of losing contact with the "backpack" would be pain and increased duration not entire failure and that it will get smaller and lighter over time. XD and she will hate it in the shower and on the toilet / sitting in general but that's is the price to pay for reduced costs
Upgrades for mom as well so she can help you better?
Upgrade her body so she doesn't die easily and get sick?
Wire communication to better assist MC when she's fighting or other things?
Glad to see the upgrades and I suspect you were purposely going for a crossover on the Cat nerve replacement as that’s what Stray Cat has done. Any kind of firearms training will cross over and while samurai tech will be better its best to have the foundation for those items to work best. Very well done.
It was actually a Vestia Zeta reference; specifically to her skills in Holocure.
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